3mth old orphan foal...

[PapaFrita]

If you recall the scabby foal? Well, his mum died yesterday. IMO she should've been PTS a couple of weeks ago, but I don't want to go into details as now my concern is helping her baby who is still severely underweight and now, of course, without his mum. YO has bought some mare replacement milk, which the grooms are supposed to feed him with from a bottle, but he won't touch it (they've been trying this for several days) I'd like to help in some way... I'm thinking of offering taking over from the grooms (who erm... often seem to have better things to do than feed orphan foals ) and would welcome ideas for feeding baby who has been virtually weaned for a month or two. He's now just under 3.5 months old.
He's also on his own at the moment. Would he be better out with all the other mares and foals or perhaps with PF and the Little Cigar, who are by themselves as well during the day?
Any suggestions/ideas recommended. I'll take some pics tomorrow, but he looks absolutely awful

 

[bonney]

sorry,don't know the full story.but i once lost my mare a few years ago and she had a 12 week old foal at the time.
we could not get the foal to drink the milk replacer so we ended up giving her a stud mix and plenty of grass.

she however did make her height and was a picture to look at.but she did have a few issues as she brought up with no other horses i think she thought she was human.

i would make sure the foal has other youngsters or an older horse for company.good luck.

 

[PapaFrita]

Well, mare was very very underweight when foal was born. He was very slow to get up and feed, and in fact needed help to stand. The grooms bottle fed him for a couple of days and he seemed to recover. Then he had a skin problem and his coat started to slough off at pressure points (he did spend a LOT of time lying down; more so than foals usually do). Eventually that was treated and again, he and mare seemed to get better. Then she just stopped gaining weight, got skinnier and skinnier and eventually just refused to get up. There's more to it than that, but I don't really want to go into all the details

 

[Rollin]

The minute I saw your post I knew you were going to say the poor mare had died. I am very upset and hope you will be able to help the orphan.

From what you have said I think the foal will have a better chance with you than with the grooms in your yard. What do the owners have to say about all this?

I have no experience with orphan foals but know that if they don't get companionship of other horses they get too cheeky. If it isn't possible to put him with other foals is there an old horse who might keep him company, when we weaned our young Arab colt we put him with my 30 year old gelding who taught him some manners but took care of him.

I know you don't have the feedstuffs we have in Europe but grains which are crushed and cooked are more digestible- if you can get them you can DIY.

Keep us posted.

 

[madmare22]

I had a three month old orphan last year. I sent her to a friend with a shetland that had nannied foals before.

It is very important that she has equine company as they can become too humanaised and it is also very important to get the milk replacer into them as they cannot digest the other feeds properly until they are 4 months. Try a white bucket , if you cannot get it to drink from a bucket try syringing the milk down its throat. Messy but it works. Also try goats milk if you can get it where you are.

Hope this helps

 

[Fleur100]

A couple of years ago we had to wean a 3 month old foal (not by choice) and the vet said it did not need a milk replacement so long as it would eat hard feed, hay and drink water. The foal was turned out with other older youngsters has thrived and is now a healthy bouncing 2yr old.

 

[henryhorn]

I would syringe milk replacer down it for now and keep offering feed, try anything you think might tempt it.
At 12 weeks it can survive without milk but of course would do better with it.
Company is vital, but PF could get shirty with it, just try and stay near the first hour or so.
One of our orphan foals flatly refused to ever drink out of a bucket, you may find you have to be a bit brutal helping it to learn about a teat, we use lambs' teats they are longer, and enlarge the hole.
Pinning it in a corner and then squeezing rhythmically with your fingers on the teat into it's mouth does encourage them to suck.
Once it eats feed you're ok, you can add milk pellets or powder.
If you can't get that can you get goat's milk? Good alternative.

 

[Sharan]

I reared a 2 month old foal. Had the most horrendous battles to get her to drink at first but once she got going she was fine.
Goats milk is very good too if he wont drink the replacer. Also soaking any grain in the milk to sofen the grain and also get the extra nuitrients into him.
Good luck.